How regional flavours stem out of remakes

Hyderabad: Telugu filmmakers are bringing in a distinct and unique regional flavour with their remakes from other languages. Besides ‘Bheemla Nayak’ being an eye feast for Pawan Kalyan fans, there is a reason why the film gives a fresh experience for those who have already watched the borrowed-original work ‘Ayyappanum Koshiyum’ in Malayalam. It was […]

Hyderabad: Telugu filmmakers are bringing in a distinct and unique regional flavour with their remakes from other languages. Besides ‘Bheemla Nayak’ being an eye feast for Pawan Kalyan fans, there is a reason why the film gives a fresh experience for those who have already watched the borrowed-original work ‘Ayyappanum Koshiyum’ in Malayalam.

It was the same with ‘Vakeel Saab’ which didn’t take the usual route of frame-to-frame adaptation while remaking original work ‘Pink’. Pawan was aggressive, had a backstory, he was unlikely to be a lawyer in a High Court, whereas Amitabh Bachchan and star Ajith have had subtle performances in other versions. The makers knew how Telugu fans would want Pawan Kalyan on screen. Given his image of Power Star who is also into politics, elements of serious societal issues, consent and the material that the film dealt with had penetrated well into the masses because of Pawan’s image.

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The success of ‘Bheemla Nayak’ lies in its changed structure and screenplay from Trivikram. Perhaps, the result would have been different, had the makers adapted the frame-to-frame story that might have bored a large section of fans.

Thumb rule for success

Films are bound to fail if local nuances are missed. Telugu filmmakers follow the formula of shot-for-shot adaptation everytime they dabble with remakes. But films like ‘Dear Megha’, Dil Raju’s ‘Jaanu’ which had high expectations took a severe beating in the past. Because the visual work was transferred to the screen almost completely identical from the original works of Kannada film ‘Dia’ and Tamil romantic drama ’96’. Dil Raju felt that ’96’ which was a blockbuster in Tamil, might work well in Telugu. Later it was proved that if one can’t bring in the local nuances, films are bound to fail at the box office. ‘Drishyam 2’ is another example. This shot-for-shot adaptation of the Malayalam original garnered not-so-good reviews in Telugu because the cast and the screenplay were almost identical.

The films that are in the pipeline include Megastar Chiranjeevi’s ‘Godfather’ getting a complete makeover to suit the sensibilities of Telugu fans. For instance, Nayanathara is being added as romantic interest of Chiru. Entire political backdrop is getting changed without affecting the essence of the story. Another example in the list is Rajendra Prasad starrer ‘Senapathi’ which was released on aha OTT. The story won accolades on OTT for being quite different from the original Tamil ‘8 Thottakkal’.

The Kannada romantic drama ‘Love Mocktail’ is being made in Telugu as ‘Gurthunda Seethakalam’ starring Satyadev, Kavya Shetty, Megha Akash, Tamannah Bhatia among other star cast. Naga Chaitanya gets ready with the remake of ‘Maanadu’. Venkat Prabhu, the director of original work, is helming the Telugu version. Pooja Hegde is the leading lady in it.

Chiranjeevi’s another flick ‘Bhola Shankar’ is the remake of the Tamil super hit flick ‘Vedalam’. ‘Oh My Kadavule’, the Tamil film is being remade into Telugu by Vishwak Sen. The title ‘Ori Devuda’ was announced last december. Malayalam survival thriller ‘Helen’ is being remade in Telugu. It is being helmed by Hanuman Chowdary and Prasad V. Potluri has acquired the remake rights. The success of these upcoming films, however, is dependent on how they cater the story to a new audience and offer a fresh experience. The digital boom has helped audiences get acquainted with films from all languages and producers can’t take viewers for granted anymore.

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